How to oppose science and english
by WhovianAlison
Summary: Alison Collins is normal in every single way but one, but that one difference would be as they say, a spoiler. She's 23, an English teacher and impossibly late for everything and anything, that is until she meets a young girl and her mysterious grandfather, along with some collegues she gets whisked away in a flurry of terror and amazement.
1. Prologue: First Meetings

Prologue

First meetings

One o'clock on the 23rd November 1963 saw young school teacher Alison Collins running down Totter's Lane towards her house. She was just rushing past the old abandoned junk yard when an old man appeared as if from thin air, right in front of her. Alison, not noticing him, continued to run full speed down the lane. This ended, of course, with the poor man being nearly bowled over by the enthusiastic young girl.

Alison stopped abruptly when she felt herself collide with something hard; she looked up slightly dazed and saw the angry face of an old man looking at her.

"Well, I hope you're happy with yourself young lady, nearly knocking over a poor man, it's quite ridiculous", he broke off suddenly and gazed at her almost expectantly.

She was still staring at him, but now her eyes had clouded as if she was severely confused and hadn't understood a word he had just spoken. He sighed seeing the obvious obliviousness of the girl and started muttering under his breath, meanwhile Alison had regained most of her senses and was able to make out a few words: "ridiculous", "humans" and strangely enough a name "Susan", at this last one Alison reacted because she knew Susan. Susan was the name of one of her pupils, her newest pupil in fact, certainly her brightest and, if Alison was being honest with herself, her favourite. Susan, according to the headmaster, lived at 76 Totter's Lane with her grandfather, who must be this man Alison realized. She looked at him a sudden light of excitement in her eyes, "Susan? Do you mean Susan Foreman?" she asked curiously.

It was now his turn to look surprised, it was almost as if he had never heard the name before, or at least he had never heard anyone except himself say it out loud before.

"Yes, of course I do, why? Do you have anything to say about her? Hmmm?" he demanded, now aggressive with, what she assumed to be grandfatherly overprotection.

In reality he was just extremely suspicious of anybody who mentioned Susan like that as people had tried to hurt her or take her away from him before.

"Oh, yes, I do actually", she answered quickly shocked by his verbal attack "I just wanted to tell you how wonderful she is, you must be very proud of her sir –"

"Doctor"

"What? Oh, alright Doctor then, anyway as I was saying is the most intelligent pupil I have ever taught"

"Pupil? Oh, so you're a teacher are you? Hmmm? Well I don't think much of your manners young lady, but thank you, hmmm… ", he trailed off thoughtfully "you must be… Alison, yes Alison Collins the English teacher".

Alison smiled, "that's right si- Doctor but how did you… oh Susan, of course!"

He peered at her closely and she blushed at his gaze and at her own stupidity.

"Well, shouldn't you be at work at this hour Miss Collins, hmmm?" he asked inquiringly.

"Umm… Oh yes I should but you see I was just off home to fetch a book for, well for Susan actually", she smiled at him "she really is curious isn't she? Anyway-", she checked her watch, "I really should be going, otherwise I really shall be late".

She held out her hand, "Well, goodbye Doctor". He grasped her small hand in his and shook it "Hmm?" he said as he was still studying her intently, "Oh yes, goodbye my dear".

At the time neither of them realized the significance of that moment and Alison had absolutely no idea of what would come of that chance meeting on the pavement.


	2. Chapter One: Who is Susan Foreman?

**You know those rewrite things where authors take dialogue and the ideas from the episode/book/movie and rewrite it the way they want, yeah that's what this is. Please don't be put off by this fact, the stories while in the same chronological order will vary a bit from the original stories, though probably when we get to "The Daleks"**

**Okay, so disclaimer… Doctor Who and its canon characters do in no way belong to me. Most of the dialogue in this chapter is taken from the episode "An Unearthly Child". **

**There done… on with the story**

Chapter 1

Who is Susan?

Three and a half hours later a loud ringing announced the end of the day at Coal Hill Secondary School in London. Enthusiastic teenagers filled the corridors, relieved to be free from the monotony of lessons. Girls were giggling and whispering as boys passed them by in the corridors, whereas the boys themselves were discussing sports.

Inside her class, 1C, Alison pushed her glasses up on to her head and started putting her books away, smiling as she did so. She had had a good afternoon, her pupils, their spirits dampened by the wet November day, had been almost frighteningly quiet and calm. Actually it was almost worrying, it was almost as if it was the metaphorical calm before the storm, but of course that was the sort of thinking that ruined people's days, so Alison shoved the thought away. In fact she had been enjoying herself so much that she had almost forgotten the strange old man.

Checking her bag one last time she noticed the book she had meant to lend to Susan. 'There you have it Alison', she thought, annoyed at herself, 'enjoy yourself too much and you'll grow forgetful in your old age'. She sighed, mentally resigning herself to giving it to Susan the next day and walked out of the door into the now silent corridor. Well, near silent, as she was walking she heard someone's footsteps behind her, she turned to see who it was and grinned brightly for once showing how young she truly was, it was a fellow teacher and her very good friend Barbara Wright. Barbara was the school's history teacher and the first person to talk to her when she'd arrived at the school two years beforehand, so naturally, the two were very close. Barbara smiled back at her kindly.

"Are you alright Alison?" she asked not unkindly, "You looked a little bit out of breath earlier, were you late again?" she teased Alison lightly.

Alison, as Barbara implied, still had the unfortunate tendency of youth to always be late, for everything, in fact it happened so often that it had become a joke between the two of them, and their friend Ian Chesterton, the science teacher.

Alison rolled her eyes at her friend and sighed "Actually I was, you see I had promised to lend a book to Susan Foreman for a bit of extracurricular reading, but naturally I forgot it at home so…"

"So you had to go home and get it" Barbara finished a small smile still present, "Oh Alison, what on Earth am I going to do with you?" she sighed with a motherly voice.

At that question Alison laughed and put on an innocent smile "Well I'm sure I don't know what you mean Barbara".

Barbara laughed lightly and continued "Anyway speaking of lending books to Susan, she asked me to lend her a book on the French revolution, apparently it's her grandfather's favourite time period. You know, she'll probably end up rewriting the whole thing".

By now they had reached the door of class 3C, Ian's science class, Barbara stopped and knocked quietly. When they both entered the "science-room" as Alison had privately dubbed it, Ian was crouched in front of a microscope and was obviously oblivious to their entrance, Alison walked up to his desk and put her bag on it, not very gently and hoisted herself up on to it. At that Ian looked up, an almost pained look on his face, though Alison knew it was not genuine.

"Not gone yet?" he asked cheerfully, walking over to the desk and marking some papers.

"No" Alison replied "otherwise we wouldn't still be here Ian".

He laughed lightly and teased "Who said I was asking you? And besides" he nudged her lightly "you know I could just push you off there", he pointed to the desk on which she was perched.

Alison pouted knowing he wouldn't actually do it but playing the hurt victim anyway. Barbara rolled her eyes at her two colleagues far to used to the father-daughter teasing they did to say anything and clearly preoccupied with something else, she answered Ian's earlier question shortly, "Obviously not".

She started walking towards the desk as Ian replied "Ask a silly question" in a slightly hurt voice, whereas Alison looked at looked at her shocked because Barbara never snapped at anybody.

"Barbara is something the matter?" she asked concerned for her friend.

"What? Oh I'm sorry" Barbara replied sincerely in answer to both the question and the hurt answer from Ian.

She turned to look at them a small apologetic smile on her face. Alison smiled back "Oh it's alright, we forgive you this time Barbara, but are you sure you're alright?"

Barbara walked over to the desk from where both Alison and Ian were looking at her friendly concern all over their faces, and sat down gently in the chair sighing "Oh, I've just had a terrible day and I don't know what to make of it" she said almost resigned.

"Really?" asked Alison "well I had a wonderful day, well afternoon at least and-"

"Shush Alison" said Ian not unkindly "we're talking about Barbara, though you having a good day is almost as bad" he turned to look at the third person in the room "Well, what's the trouble? Can we help?"

"Oh, it's one of the girls, Susan Foreman" Barbara started in way of an answer.

"Susan Foreman?" Ian asked laughing slightly "she your problem too?"

"Yes" Barbara replied sounding more resigned than ever.

"And you don't know what to make of her?" Alison inquired, feeling she should at least try to understand the problem as she didn't actually have any problems with Susan, though she didn't know what to make of her.

"No" Barbara answered quietly, so quietly in fact that Ian's next question almost drowned out the word.

"How old is she Barbara?"

"Fifteen" Alison replied instantaneously.

Ian looked at her and sighed playfully reaching out to ruffle the young teacher's hair causing her to glare at him, "I didn't know you were called Barbara, anyway as you said she's fifteen and yet I get the feeling she lets out her knowledge out a bit at a time so as not to embarrass me. Don't you think so?"

Alison nodded slowly, "Yes, I do, sometimes at least, yet at other times she's almost, clueless, you know as if she doesn't quite know how things work here or something like that, for example she can tell me anything about any author from any time period and yet when I ask her simple questions about this year's authors she can't answer them."

Ian nodded his agreement, "Yes, I get that too, she knows more about science than I'll ever know, she's a genius, is that what she's doing in history?"

Barbara smiled acknowledgingly "Yes something like that".

Ian continued "Sometimes I feel the problem is whether to stay in business or just hand the classroom to her"

"No" Barbara said, almost reprovingly "not quite" she went on "You two, I must talk to someone about this, but I don't want to get the girl in trouble and I know you're going to tell me I'm imagining things", she looked pointedly at Ian as she said this.

Ian looked offended and Alison couldn't help but let out a small giggle at his indignant face, yet at the same time she felt pleased that Barbara trusted her enough to know that she wouldn't judge anything she would say. Of course her thoughts had drawn her away from the conversation, so when they cleared it was in time to hear Barbara say, "-at her home, she said that would be absolutely impossible as her grandfather didn't like strangers".

"Her grandfather?" Alison asked "Why, I met her grandfather a couple of hours ago, just in front of the old junkyard in Totter's Lane while I was going home. He was a bit rough but didn't seem to have any particular aversion to strangers. I mean he is a doctor after all".

"You say you met him at the old junkyard in Totter's Lane?" Barbara asked interrogatively.

"Yes, that's right" Alison replied "Why?"

"It's just, I went to her house, to talk to her grandfather because her homework's been so bad lately you know" at this the other two nodded, "it's at 76 Totter's Lane according to the secretary so I went along there one evening and- Oh Ian, do pay attention" she looked at him exasperatedly because he had started walking off.

"Oh, sorry Barbara, go on, you went along there one evening?" he prompted.

"Yes and there isn't anything there, it's just the old junkyard" she explained.

"Well you must have gone to the wrong place" Ian replied reasonably.

Alison thought in silence, trying to remember the meeting in front of the junkyard, "No she's quite right Ian, on one side of the yard is number 78 and on the other 74, 76 should be right in the middle where the yard is but-" she said turning to Barbara "that's impossible isn't it? She can't live there, can she?"

"No" Barbara replied firmly "she can't, it's just not possible".

"Hmm? Seems like we've got a bit of a mystery, well there must be a simple answer somewhere" Ian said as always being the voice of reason.

He started walking around the desk towards the two concerned girls.

"Well, what is it?" Alison asked intrigued.

"We'll have to find out for ourselves won't we" said Ian, now as fascinated as the girls were.

" Thank you for the "we"" Barbara replied teasingly "She's waiting in one of the classrooms" Barbara went on more serious now "I'm lending her a book on the French revolution and Alison is lending her an "extracurricular book" as she described it."

"Oh really?" asked Ian "And what book would that be?" he was referring to Alison's enormous book collection.

"Just the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the books we're reading in class seem to be completely uninteresting to her so I'm giving her something more complex", Alison replied ignoring his little jibe, she knew she was obsessed with books and was the first to admit it.

"Anyway, what's she going to do rewrite it?" Ian inquired, this time questioning Barbara.

Barbara rolled her eyes at him, despite her telling Alison the exact same thing not twenty minutes earlier.

"Oh alright" Ian conceded chuckling slightly, "Well what are we going to do? Ask her point blank?"

Barbara looked at them "No" she said "I thought we could just drive there, wait 'til she arrives and see where she goes".

"Oh" exclaimed Alison warming up to this spying idea "Alright".

"That is if you're not doing anything" Barbara looked at them questioningly.

The three of them started off towards like the door, Ian put his coat on and held the door open for the two girls. "No I'm not" he said "After you".

The three of them left classroom 3C and Ian shut the door behind them.

"Alison?" Barbara asked "Are you sure you're not doing anything?" it almost sounded as if she was willing her not to go.

Alison just smiled "No, I'm not either Barbara, you can't put me off".

Barbara rolled her eyes as if she expected nothing else and said nothing.

From down the corridor came the sound of music playing and the three teachers walked towards it, Alison dancing slightly as she did so. The two older teachers exchanged fondly exasperated look, they were both far to used to Alison's youthful tendencies.

They entered a classroom at the far end of the corridor, the music was a lot louder once inside, but that was because of the small radio which was held in the hand of a young brunette girl, Susan Foreman herself. The girl was, like Alison had been in the corridor, dancing slightly in time with the music and the two older teachers shared a small smile at the similarities between the brunette and the blond but of course they had a job to do.

"Susan" Barbara called out.

The girl whipped around in surprise, almost dropping the radio "I'm sorry miss Wright, I-I didn't hear you coming in" she smiled nervously and spotted Alison "Oh hello miss Collins, I mean Alison" Susan was still getting used to calling her Alison, because Alison insisted that her pupils call her by her first name so as to not feel intimidated by her. "Aren't they fabulous?" she continued.

"Who?" Alison asked, knowing she was referring to the band.

"Oh it's John Smith and the Common men, they they've gone from 19 to 2" Susan replied at top speed, as usual.

"Really?" Alison asked "Well that's good".

Ian decided to impose a bit of his own knowledge on the group and insisted about his enquiring mind once Susan told him she never expected him to know about that, Alison had to stifle another laugh and Ian shot her a look and continued "And I have a very sensitive ear".

"Oh, I'm sorry" Susan said quickly turning round to turn the radio off looking guilty.

"It's alright Susan" Alison said gently "Don't worry about him".

Susan flashed her a grateful smile and turned to Barbara, "Is that the book you promised me?"

"Yes" Barbara replied.

"Thank you very much" Susan said eagerly "I'll return it tomorrow".

"No, you keep it until you've finished" Barbara said.

Susan looked at her curiously, "Oh I'll have finished it by tomorrow".

Barbara, Ian and Alison exchanged looks, as Susan walked over to her bag and started putting her book away.

"Well, where do you live Susan?" Ian asked feigning ignorance "I'm taking miss Wright and Alison home and I have room for one more, I could take you".

"Oh no that's alright, I like walking in the dark" Susan replied hastily "It's mysterious".

"Well be careful" Barbara warned "There might be fog out".

Susan hummed in acknowledgement and the three teachers walked out of the room bidding the girl goodnight. They were halfway to the front door when Alison realized that she hadn't given the book to Susan, 'oh well' she thought 'at least if we get caught spying on Susan I'll have a valid excuse". For one thing was certain, they were going to get to the bottom of this mystery. They would no longer have to question the identity of the mysterious Susan Foreman. When they reached Ian's car only one thought filled their minds, 'Who is Susan Foreman?'.


	3. Chapter Two: The TARDIS?

Disclaimer: Doctor Who does not belong to me, this one belongs to Verity Lambert who is awesome and amazing and not me. The characters are not mine, excerpt for Alison, also locations and names aren't mine either. I just own the narrative and a few lines of dialogue…otherwise it all belongs to the first ever episode An Unearthly Child, which is awesome and if you haven't seen it yet, you so should. Anyway, sorry for the late update, I've had a load of stuff to do, and from here on the updates could be rather erratic…heck I could end up uploading the 1st chapters of the 3rd and 4th part of the story…because they're both pretty much written out.

Chapter two: The TARDIS?

Sitting in the back of Ian's car Alison was starting to think that perhaps this wasn't as fun as it had seemed in the warm familiarity of Ian's classroom, now her stomach was tying itself in knots and she felt as though she was going to be sick. Of course she knew they were doing the right thing, they were making sure that a student was alright, so it wasn't as if they were spying on her for no good reason. In the front Ian and Barbara were discussing Susan, expressing how they both had some difficulties with her in class or something of the ilk, but Alison's anxiety made it hard for her to fully concentrate on what they were saying.

A movement in the corner of her eye caused her to turn, Susan was walking furtively down the street, looking round as she were afraid that someone were following her, or well spying on her as it were. This look did nothing to ease Alison's feeling of unease, and a feeling of guilt had started to well up, as the poor teenager seemed quite suspicious. But, feeling responsible for the girl's well-being, she tapped Ian lightly on the shoulder, effectively stopping his whispered conversation with Barbara. He turned to look at the young blond over his shoulder.

"Yes?" he inquired "What's wrong Alison?"

"Well nothing's wrong exactly, but take a look at who's over there" she said seriously, pointing over discreetly to where Susan was standing.

Ian followed her finger and exclaimed in a loud whisper "She's right, look Barbara".

Barbara looked up just in time to see Susan glance over her shoulder one last time before pushing open the heavy wooden gate and entering the yard. She turned to the other two, her own guilt and unease evident in her eyes. Clearly she felt just as comfortable doing this as Alison did, despite the fact that it was her idea in the first place, and Alison was almost wishing that she had taken up Ian's earlier offer of driving her home, because they didn't need to be here.

"Look," Barbara said slowly "can we go in now? I hate to think of her alone in that place".

Alison smiled at the tone of almost motherly concern in her friend's voice, but nodded in agreement as the thought of the young girl stuck inside that terrible junkyard was an awful one. Meanwhile Ian looked at the two of them, clearly concerned about Susan, though less so than his two companions.

"If she is alone," he started, causing Alison's gaze to turn to him, eyebrows raised questioningly behind her glasses. Ian noticing said look continued his thought "Look," he explained "she is fifteen. She might be meeting a boy. Didn't that occur to either of you?"

She had to admit that the possibility had never crossed her mind and judging by Barbara's skeptical look, she was just as doubtful. "Meeting a boy? In a place like that? Ian, why on Earth would they be meeting inside that awful place?"

Ian looked at her, just as at loss as she was, and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know Alison, but I'm hoping she is".

Barbara still looked vaguely troubled but nodded anyway, "I am as well, I mean it would be so wonderfully normal."

Yes, but that was exactly the reason why it was so improbable, because nothing about Susan was normal, here was a girl who was extremely clever, yet extremely stupid at the same time, she knew things that Alison could never dream of knowing. No, there was a lot more to all of this than meeting a boy, a lot more she thought, shivering slightly as a feeling of foreboding flooded through her.

She looked at her two friends for reassurance, as she often did "Tell me if this is silly" she asked, voice shaking a bit, "but I feel, almost, well…almost frightened. As if we're about to interfere in something that's best left alone." She shook her head and laughed quietly, "I'm sorry; it's terribly childish of me isn't it"

But as she looked at Barbara, a wave of understanding passed between the two of them, obviously her feelings weren't as silly as they seemed, as her friend was experiencing them too. Ian on the other hand stared determinedly ahead, not looking at either of them, as if willing himself not to feel it too.

"Well," he sighed steeling his nerves "Come on, let's get this over with."

He opened the door and stepped out of the car into the foggy London night, Barbara and Alison exchanged worried glances before doing the same thing, Barbara hurried to Ian's side as Alison pulled her coat around her, internally cursing the cold night air. "Can't you feel it?" she insisted.

Ian looked at them both insisting "I take things as they come." He walked towards the now closed gate and turned to the girls "Come on."

He feels it too then; Alison thought as she entered the yard, that much is obvious; I mean he must feel it. In front of her a bright light shone, as Ian turned on his small torch, and shone its light on a wide array of useless things, in one corner there was a plastic mannequin from a shop, and all around there were boxes and buckets filled with all sorts of oddities. Had it not been for the fact that the night seemed to make everything terrifying Alison might have been fascinated to see what it was they contained, but as it was she was too afraid even to move. In front of her she could hear Ian complaining about the mess and quite honestly she agreed with him, but then again, she thought condescendingly, this is a junkyard.

"We're not turning over any of this stuff to find her" he said, pushing an old carpet aside in exasperation.

Barbara turned to face the other way and started walking to the other side. "Over there?" she questioned motioning to the unlit side of the room.

Ian turned to follow her when the torch suddenly went out with a loud bang.

"Ian? Are you alright?" Alison called, concerned for her friend as she could hear a mumbled cursing.

The stream of whispered curse stopped as he replied "Yes, but blast, I've dropped it"

"Dropped what?" Alison wondered, her mind in a state of panic, she severely disliked the dark, though her fears were getting easier to handle.

"The torch", was his reply.

Oh, thought Alison, that would explain the sudden darkness, I suppose, she sighed, sometimes she could be incredibly stupid, of course he was talking about the torch.

Barbara sighed exasperatedly "Well use a match," clearly she was rolling her eyes at them in the dark, and Alison couldn't help but grin suddenly at the familiar gesture.

From behind her Ian replied, just as annoyed "I haven't got any" he sighed "Oh, never mind."

The three teachers advanced without any light towards the darker end of the yard. Alison's heart was beating so hard she had the impression that the entire world could hear it. They were meddling in things that shouldn't be meddled in and her fight or flight instincts were screaming at her to get out before it was too late, before she was in over her head. But Alison was never one for listening to herself, so she shook off her misgivings and peered into the darkest corners, her eyes finally adjusted to the gloom, and called out Susan's name, with her colleagues doing the same next to her.

Ian could just make out the outlines of his two companions in the dark and murmured softly to them "She can't have gone out without us seeing her."

Barbara meanwhile had stumbled in the dark until she found herself touching something hard and tall. She stepped back in alarm and looked upwards, through a small window that had previously gone unnoticed the clouds shifted from a full moon and a silvery light filtered through lighting up a box. For now she could see that that was what it was, a box, a blue London police telephone box, in the middle of a junkyard.

"Ian, Alison, look at this," she called out in astonishment.

The other two hurried towards her and topped abruptly at the sight of the police box.

"It's a police box!" Ian said, stating the obvious, "what on Earth is it doing here? These things are usually on the street."

He stepped forward putting his hand on it as if to check it was real. As soon as his hand touched the chipped blue-painted wood, his eyes widened. He turned slowly to Barbara and Alison shock written all over his face as he said in a low almost frightened voice, "Feel it."

The girls stepped forward and started to put their hands on the wooden surface as Ian repeated his words. Beneath her hands Alison could feel a slight thrumming vibration, like a sort of heart beat, regular and constant.

Barbara too felt the strange sensation "It's a faint vibration" she said her tone reasonable but slightly breathless, as if she couldn't quite believe it. Not that anyone could blame her.

At the same time Alison exclaimed in an awe filled voice, "It's alive! Ian, Barbara, the police box is alive!"

Ian looked at her then proceeded to walk around it, when he returned he shook his head in disbelief "It's not connected to anything" he started "unless it's through the floor" he said slowly to himself.

Barbara was clearly starting to feel more frightened than amazed or astonished, "I've had enough. Let's go and find a policeman," she said looking at the other two imploringly, willing tem to go with her.

Ian nodded in agreement, "Yes all right."

The two started to walk off, leaving Alison wide eyed in amazement still touching the suddenly extraordinary blue box.

Ian turned back and called out to her to hurry up, as the gate to the yard opened with a loud creaking sound. Alison wrenched her hand off the box and sprinted to where the two others were hiding. As she did so, she heard a familiar voice call out from the box "There you are Grandfather," it was Susan. Susan was in the box!

Next to her she heard Barbara gasp quietly "It's Susan."

Ian hastened to silence her; afraid her exclamation would make the old man suspicious, and stepped out carefully from their hiding place.

"Excuse me" he said politely.

The Doctor, for Alison could now see that that was who it was, looked up at Ian sharply. "What are you doing here?" he exclaimed in the sharp tones that Alison had been on the receiving end of a couple of hours earlier.

Ian looked surprised at his tone, but ploughed on bravely "We're looking for a young girl."

The Doctor looked at Ian apprehensively, "we?" he questioned indicating the fact that Ian was clearly alone.

Barbara glanced over to Alison and took her had squeezing it. She understood the message clearly and the two of them stood up at the same time and started towards the men.

"Good evening" Barbara said pleasantly, smiling politely at the older man.

The old man had barely glanced at her before his eyes found Alison's smaller form, standing almost defiantly at Barbara's side.

"What do you want, young lady, hmm?" he said, looking pointedly at her.

"Oh, umm…well actually si-Doctor I mean" he smiled slightly at the fact that she had remembered "we're looking for Susan, you see she came in here and didn't come out so we were worried about her and came to look and-" she said, talking faster than she normally would due to her nervousness.

The Doctor cut her off, "Really? In here? Are you sure miss…oh what was it now, hmm? Ah yes, Collins!"

Alison nodded as Barbara cut in, "Yes we saw her form across the street."

The younger girl shot a grateful glance at her friend as the Doctor started to walk around, muttering under his breath again. He looked almost put out by the fact that it had been Barbara and not Alison who'd answered his questions. Suddenly, he looked up sharply at them, suspicion flaring up in his eyes "why were you spying on her?"

Ian looked at him and obtusely ignored his question replying instead "We heard a young girl's voice call out to you."

The Doctor gave him a look of exasperation and told him promptly "Your hearing must be very acute. I didn't hear anything."

Barbara looked astonished that anyone could be so annoyingly stubborn and pointed towards the telephone box "It came from in there" she insisted.

The Doctor rolled his eyes and scoffed dismissively at her statement, but Alison was sure she could see a hint of worry in his annoyed expression. "You imagined it."

The history teacher puffed up indignantly "I most certainly did not imagine it."

He turned now to Ian, clearly trying to pass over Barbara's statements as her own insanity and said to the other man in a reasonable tone, "Young man, is it reasonable to suppose that anybody would be in a cupboard like that? Hmm?"

To be fair, Alison thought, he had a point, but still "Would it therefore be unreasonable to ask you to let us have a look inside?" she asked ignoring a new set of warning bells that had gone off in her mind, that were telling her not to push it with the seemingly harmless old man.

He gave her a look, then turned to a pile of rubbish, picked up what seemed to be a dirty old painting of some sort and started muttering to himself.

The three teachers exchanged glances behind his back, the question "what on Earth is going on?" lingering in the air between them. Alison had to wonder why he was being so obtuse, when they had first met that afternoon he had been, while a bit rough, perfectly gentlemanly, but now he was practically treating them as if they were some sort of dimwitted criminals.

The old man looked up, realizing they were still there "I suggest you should leave here" he stated, dismissing them.

Ian glared at him and said angrily "not until we're satisfied that Susan isn't in there and frankly" he continued "I don't understand your attitude."

The older man stared at Ian and shot back in utter disbelief, "Yours leaves a lot to be desired."

Alison looked at Susan's grandfather and said gently "will you open the door?" she was willing him to do so, now rather afraid for Susan's safety and he was clearly in no mood to help.

This was obviously a mistake though as he wheeled round to face her, his hawkish eyes blazing with annoyance and a small spark of mischief, causing Alison to back down and grip Barbara's hand for reassurance. "Even if I did young lady, there's nothing there."

"Well then," Ian exclaimed loudly, leaping at this new chance "what are you afraid to show us?"

The spark faded from the Doctor's eyes, replaced by indignance at the very suggestion of him being afraid. "Afraid?" he asked haughtily "Oh, go away" Clearly his pride had been hurt by Ian's statement.

The younger man turned back to his two colleagues and said "I think we'd better go and fetch a policeman…"

He turned to go as a smug grin appeared on the other man's face; "very well" he said sounding mockingly resigned.

Ian turned back to him "And you're coming with us" he finished triumphantly.

The Doctor looked momentarily stunned and his mouth opened for a few seconds before his eyebrows raised. "Oh am I?" he asked challengingly, "I don't think so young man, no I don't think so."

He turned back swiftly towards the police box and Barbara let go of Alison's hand to advance next to Ian, the three of them looked at each other and Alison whispered "Well, what are we going to do now I mean we can't force him to come with us Ian, you know that."

Her friend turned and murmured back "I know, but we can't leave him here. Doesn't it seem obvious to you that he's got her locked up in there?"

Alison nodded it did seem to be the most logical explanation, but he was her grandfather, and he clearly loved Susan enormously, surely he wouldn't do anything bad to her, such as locking her in a police box. "Besides" Ian continued "There's no door handle. There must be a secret lock somewhere."

"A secret lock? Ian, that's impossible." Barbara exclaimed, looking at him as if he were crazy, of course she was no stranger to bizarre suggestions, but usually they came from her pupils, or Alison, not from Ian, who was generally reasonable, aside from the immaturity he could display when he argued with Alison.

"Well, what do you think it is?" asked Alison.

Meanwhile the Doctor, who had been pretending not to listen to their conversation turned and stared "Don't you think you're being rather high handed young lady? You thought you saw a young girl enter the yard. You imagine you heard her voice. You believe she might be in there. It's not very substantial is it? He said making Alison jump and turn to glare at him.

Barbara looked at him, a desperate exasperation in her eyes and voice as she asked plaintively "But why won't you help us?"

To her question the Doctor merely replied that he wasn't hindering them and that if they wanted to make fools of themselves they could go and find a policeman.

"Oh yes?" questioned Ian "While you nip off in the other direction," Alison could tell that if something didn't happen soon both men were going to end up by murdering each other, for all ready the annoyance in the Doctor's eyes turned to anger and Ian was well past the mild irritation he had been displaying.

"Insulting," the Doctor retorted, trying to keep his anger in check "there's only one way in and out of this yard. I shall be here when you get back. I want to see your faces when you try to explain my behavior to a policeman."

He looked a mix of anger and extreme satisfaction, which prompted Ian to turn towards the gate "Nevertheless, we're going to find one," he beckoned to the girls "Come on you two."

Just as they were about to leave the girl's voice rang out again, in a mix of curiosity and worry "What are you doing out there?"

Ian turned to rush towards the police box, exclaiming loudly, "She is in there."

The Doctor stared as the door of the blue box began to open and he lunged towards it yelling, "Close the door."

The younger of the two men raced after him and grabbed him around the waist, stopping the older one from reaching the door. As they struggled, Ian called out to the two women and Alison dashed for the door and ran inside the box, into a brightly lit room.

She stopped abruptly, distantly hearing Barbara do the same next to her. Alison's jaw dropped, all around her were bright white walls covered with circular things, in front of her all sorts of odds and ends that included a chair that would not have looked out of place in the home of some long forgotten French monarch and an intricate clock that was taller than she was. And right in front of her was the thing that rendered her speechless, it was a hexagonal object, like nothing she'd seen before, it was clearly some sort of console panel, it had buttons and dials and levers all over it and in the center was a transparent tube, filled with a glowing substance. And in front of that stood the source of their intrusion, Susan foreman, who was staring at the two teachers as if she had never seen them before. From behind her she heard the old man's voice telling Susan to close the door, she turned slowly towards where the door had been, but it had vanished, replaced by two more wall panels.

"I believe these people are known to you," the Doctor said, gesturing to the three teachers, as it seemed as though Ian had entered the box while Alison had been staring around in fascination.

The small brunette nodded "They're three of my school teachers," she said looking bewildered "what are you doing here?"

Barbara meanwhile was still looking round her amazement reflecting Alison's, "Where are we?" she asked in wonder.

The Doctor advanced towards the console talking to Susan, "They must have followed you. That ridiculous school, "he said irritably "I knew something like this would happen if we stayed in one place too long."

Alison still looked around with wonder, hearing as if from a great distance, Ian and Barbara arguing with the old man, but she was too astounded to pay any real attention to what they were saying. The place was astonishing; it was, well if she was going to admit it, it was almost alien, like something out of a science fiction novel.

"What is this place?" she asked in an awe filled voice, that nobody seemed to hear too caught up in their arguments to pay any attention to the younger teacher, as it now seemed as if Ian wanted to know how all of this could fit inside a tiny police box and while she too wanted to know the answer to that question, she was far too preoccupied with observing her surroundings, for she had now noticed several doors leading from the room and wondered where they led. She was so preoccupied that she almost didn't notice Susan approaching her with a nervous smile on her face, usually reserved for when she didn't understand something in class, or I she had a question to ask.

"It's called the TARDIS" she said, clearly she had heard the question.


End file.
